Prisoners moved north from Birmingham jail to make room for others from south

PRISONERS at HMP Birmingham are being moved north to make way for inmates from the South East of England, according to a new report.

PRISONERS at HMP Birmingham are being moved north to make way for inmates from the South East of England, according to a new report.

The report by the Independent Monitoring Board expressed concern at the “disruptive” practice of moving Midlands inmates to ease overcrowding in other jails.

Inmates are often moved when they have only a short time left to serve on their sentences.

Board Chairman John Smith said the practice made it harder for prisoners to retain links with their families and could affect their rehabilitation.

He said: “The movement is due to overcrowding of London’s prisons, and what that means is that the London prison population is shifted here and this causes frustration.”

Mr Smith added that the movement of some of the Winson Green prison’s 1,450 inmates made it hard for families to visit them.

James Shanley, governor of HMP Birmingham, said overcrowding was affecting most prisons in some form or another at present. “We have to work within our operating constraints,” he said.

“This means that some West Midlands prisoners end up further from home than we would like.”

Other issues raised in the annual report include the number of foreign national prisoners being held at HMP Birmingham after their sentences have ended.

The IMB found that of the 227 foreign national prisoners housed in the prison as of June 30 last year, 23 inmates had not been removed from prison within a month of completing their sentences.

One inmate, whose sentence expired in August 2006, was only released last September.

But a spokesman for the UK Border Agency, which is responsible for securing the UK borders and controlling migration, the vast majority of foreign national prisoners are removed swiftly and efficiently. “We detain foreign lawbreakers pending deportation who pose a risk to the public or are likely to abscond,” said the spokesman.